CBD's Fennern Chimney Cap Page

This is the largest gable style copper chimney cap project I had worked on to date. This is for Mr. & Mrs. Fennern in Newberg, Oregon. Ron first contacted me 7/31/12 and we gradually worked out the details of this project through 15 e-mails and a visit out to his house to get the exact measurements.

I designed the roof line to resemble the house with the gable ends, but he liked the steeper 16/12 pitch of the Graham project I had done back in 2009. Although he wanted this to be lacquered to retain this new copper look (even after I advised against it). He also wanted this to have a finial mount built into the roof with a copper flag weathervane to rotate in the wind. I had designed this chimney cap in an unusual way with a horizontal side screen and the hexagon shaped screen on the gable ends to cover the sides of the taller flue liner without adding a lot of height to the chimney.

The client approved this design and has been pleased with the results.

Below is the final product installed along with the copper flag weathervane mounted:

Here is some shots of the Ipe hardwood support frame we need to build inside the copper base to help anchor this down in high wind storms. It adds a good deal of strength, weight, and threads for the stainless steel screws that will lock it down

The base of this chimney cap measures 25-7/8" X 37.75" inside diameter to fit comfortably over their brick chimney. This brings the base out to 28" X 40" OSD. It then tapers at a 6/12 pitch in 4" from the outside frame to a 20" X 32" mid section (shown below) to cover the flue liner that protrudes up from the top of their chimney. The ipe hardwood has been cut on all 4 edges and glued in place, then treated with tung oil.

It took a few days just to build these roof support frames and took 60 rivets for each frame. I believe these support should be placed no more than 12" apart, so these were place less than 10" apart. We made the end pieces with the 13 gauge stainless steel screen flush with the sharp edges bent at a right angle to set into a channel. These screens are what we get my hands lacerated on more than any other aspect of our work, so it's important to cover all the edges of this SS screen.

I designed this with the long side screens to lay horizontally, as seen below. This shows the weathervane mount being structurally built inside the roof of this chimney cap for a 12" hidden support anchor.

As all these pieces get fastened together it gradually adds more and more strength to this structure. Then the roof skin goes over these frames and holds everything together quite well. I decided this should have a liner to seal off the upper section of the roof structure and shield it from the heat that can be generated. The base of the weathervane mount is also riveted in place as well as soldered. The top of this pipe is held in place with a sheet of copper bent over the top ridge. Then the roof skin will also hold it as well for a combined total of 44oz copper. I'm pretty sure it's not going anywhere even if this got so hot the solder melted-off.

I used 7 separate pieces to add over the peak of this Segmented Globe finial with 1/2" and 3/4" pipe parts. Then there is the 11 piece swiveling flag pole to slide down over the finial to transform it into a weathervane (flag not shown in this image). I also waxed the shaft, so it would rotate very easily. Including the solid brass mast rod this was assembled from 22 pieces to end up being just 3 basic parts to add above their new chimney cap.

Here is the completed chimney cap before and after I added the decorative copper strips. We discussed aesthetic options like adding strips of metal over the roof to make it look more like a standing seam construction. After some discussion and sharing photos from another project they decided that adding the same sort of 4 flat bands 2" wide instead of just 1.5" wide over the roof skin would be best, so it was not just a large flat sheet.

Dimensions: base/skirt ISD 25-7/8" X 37.75", OSD 28" X 40", roof OSD 34" X 46.5"

This was 133# in all
Weights and cost breakdown of these pieces are as follows:

28.4# - wood frame inside the base/skirt

8.8# - SS screen

95.8# of copper sheet metal

$1,916 - 76.64 sq' of copper X $25

+ $169.35 for 5/4 x 6 hardwood boards

+ $146.80 for SS screens

$125 for weathervane support pipe built into the roof

$170 for 24" tall Segmented Globe

$175 for custom 32oz copper rotating flag

+ $400 to buff and lacquer the outside of this copper project

+ $300 for pre-measure, delivery, pressure wash upper bricks, and installation

= $3,502.15 sub total

- $470.67 saved for more copper and wood used than estimated & forgotten charge

= $3,031.48 Grand Total installed

Here is the installation. It was an interesting feat to come up with a safe way to get this up on the roof with a maximum weight limit of 300# ladder strength. I made a wood sled w/side rails to set the chimney cap on. I was at the top pulling and Chris was below pushing up.

We used the client's pressure washer to clean off the top and upper sides of this chimney before installation. Once it was in place it was easy to just tighten the SS screws after checking the vertical level of the weathervane mount.

By request, I also had polished and lacquered his Blue Herron weathervane mounted on his shed, shown here: